Archives | Sonja Richter

It’s not easy to rebel when your dad wants to join the party… One day (in 1979), Magnus and his son Nikolaj hit the wall in their new terrace house in Rykkinn. Magnus is an architect, hippie and free spirit, a glaring exception in a community where equality and conformity is the norm. He always stands up for his son, supporting him unconditionally, even when Nikolaj decides to stop giving a damn. Sons of Norway is a film about rebellion, punk rock, suburban hell and the struggle between freaks and punks. But most of all, it’s the story of an unusual father-son relationship, and about the strength of the bonds we sometimes do our best to rip apart.

A disturbed woman and a violent lunatic walk the same path in this thriller from Swedish director Kristian Petri. Monia is a businesswoman who has been hired to work for a large corporation based in Gothenburg. One evening, while having drinks with her colleagues, Monia steps outside for some air and she happens upon a man who has been brutally stabbed by a serial killer on the loose. Monia, who feels a curious emotional distance from the world around her, isn’t sure what to make of this incident at first, but she can’t get the violent image out of her mind, and over the next several days she keeps stumbling upon victims of the killer’s handiwork. No one finds any of this remarkable besides her friend Frank, but in time she begins crossing paths with a curious man who seems to appear at the same crimes scenes she observes.

The young woman, Marie, is an outsider in the small coastal community where she has grown up. The townspeople live in fear of her and not least her mother, who is wheelchair bound, suffering from a mysterious illness. When Marie discovers her body changing – long hair growing on her chest and back – she begins searching for answers concerning her family’s hidden past. Something that will have great consequences for herself and her family – and the choices she has to make. [Synopsis courtesy of Critics Week]

Mary Bee Cuddy, 31, lives a solitary existence in a God-fearing mid-western town. She is designated by members of her church to take back East three women who have lost their minds. On the way from Nebraska to Iowa, where those women will at last find refuge, Mary Bee saves the life of Briggs, a claim-jumper and outlaw. He agrees to help in her mission through snowstorms and perilous encounters with settlers, Indians and the harshness of the Frontier territory. [Synopsis courtesy of Cannes Film Festival]